Spotlight: Rebecca Kraemer

Spotlight: Rebecca Kraemer Moderates:VaginaPagina for more than three years Work: Apple Certified Technician, muscular therapist

What are the most popular topics that come up on VaginaPagina?
We're always impressed with the depth and scope of questions around all aspects of female sexual and reproductive health, but vulvas are an especially hot topic! Our wiki, The Vulvapedia, contains articles on many popular subjects. In the LiveJournal community, we list the Top 5 FAQs, which include Emergency Contraception, Hormonal Birth Control, Pubic Hair Care/Removal, Urinary Tract Infections and Yeast Infections.

Beyond the Top 5, we invite conversation on subjects that deserve more on and offline discussion, such as Pain During Sex, Gender Issues, and Alternative Menstrual Products. It's also important for us to provide resources for support through crisis situations.

What motivated you to join the VP team?
I had been a member for more than two years and I loved the community! I'm passionate about education, especially around health issues. And as a survivor of sexual assault, it’s also important for me to help support other women working through crisis.

The VP community is so open to sharing personal experiences. Does this come naturally to you?
We're all strong women who know our boundaries. So if a topic comes up that’s too close, we can always say “I'm bowing out of this one,” with no questions asked. That said, we might take for granted that most of us are comfortable going into a depth of detail that most folks would consider way too much information.

Is it tough to set the right tone?
We strive to craft comments that open up space for conversation and debate, while respecting that we have different ideals. What might be right for one person might not work for another. But sometimes it’s tough to express your thoughts without passing judgment.

Do you have an example?
Sure. Take abortion – a heated topic in almost every circle. Our rule is that abortion debate is not allowed, but factual questions are okay. Say a member posts that she’s going to have an abortion and requests information about surgical versus medical options. It’s important that the community respond with answers or support -- without questioning her decision. When someone responds with, “Have you thought about adoption? “ she disrespects the member’s choice, injects judgment, and ignores her actual question.

Any surprises?
How much VP would influence other aspects of my life. I’ve gone from spending tons on tampons to using a reusable Diva Cup, which has gotten me more in touch with my menstruation. I had struggled for years trying to find a form of birth control that worked for me; now I just celebrated the three-year-anniversary of my Mirena IUD – which rocks my world! I've also become more proactive in talking about sexual health with new partners and my gynecologist. I help educate friends, co-workers and basically anyone on the street who strikes up a conversation about sexual health!

Has VP changed or influenced your career-path?
While VP didn't influence my decision to go back to school for muscular therapy, it did influence my choice to pursue pregnancy massage and doula certification.

What are you most proud of?
Easy – our Everyday Bodies Project – a gallery of unedited pictures of members’ body parts. The gallery showcases all the differences that make us "normal." When women who have struggled with body image their whole lives view the pictures and think, “Oh my God, I look like that too,” that’s a powerful first step in body acceptance and self-love.

How did this project come about?
One of our former maintainers Fekalyn, birthed the project after becoming frustrated that when searching for realistic pictures of the female form, she could only find pornography and photo shopped images.

Any thoughts to growing the project beyond VP?
I’d like to see the Everyday Bodies Project develop into a larger public Web gallery. One of the complications is that all photos submitted so far must remain on LiveJournal VP to uphold the terms established with our submitters. So that means we’d need to start again from scratch. Also, if we made the gallery public, we would probably not allow discussion. Currently, we only allow discussion that doesn’t single out a contributor. To uphold this policy, all comments are screened and approved. To make things manageable in a public forum, and to reinforce that these pictures are educational, we’d take the conversation piece out altogether.

Do you actively try to grow VP?
While we definitely want to keep growing, the biggest challenge is preserving our ideals of safe space.

How do you mean?
A safe space is one where everyone feels welcome, supported, and safe from personal attacks or judgments. This doesn’t mean that members won’t be challenged – just in a constructive, supportive way. VP promotes empowerment as a model by which we can learn to help each other.

The concept of safe space is one most people have never been exposed to, and some are even threatened by it. Also, with people coming from so many different backgrounds, we have to work hard to correct misinformation with factual sources and to keep the things that plague many internet communities. So far, we’ve been blessed with proactive members who are quick to let us know if someone’s out of line.

How would you like to see VP evolve?
I'd like to see us continue to expand and to include even more international members. I'd like to see our Vulvapedia grow exponentially and become an even more valuable resource online. The biggest thing for me is education, and the more people we can teach the better!

While we have some wonderful resources in North America, I think shared global knowledge is a much better way to draw more universal conclusions. For instance, I now proudly have an IUD despite it being a rarely used type of contraception for an American my age. In Europe, the IUD is one of the most common forms of birth control, but in the US many doctors believe that a nulliparous single woman in her twenties is not a good candidate.

Who do you admire in the Women’s Health community at large?
I give a big thumbs-up to the women who started Good Vibrations!

Learn more about Rebecca.

Who inspires you? Let us know who we should feature in our next Spotlight Interview. Write us at community@wegohealth.com